Coffee Break
by brumalbreeze
Summary: "I'm Nitori Aiichirou!" the boy introduced himself cheerily. The redhead wasn't sure what to think about this newcomer, since it was barely breaching seven and he was already this enthusiastic. Not many people he knew would be this happy so early in the morning, and the ones he did know were a little unscrewed in the head.


**A/N**: If you would like to share this on Tumblr, please reblog it directly from my page! Just add "stories" to the end of my URL and you can find a masterlist of my works. Thanks!

* * *

Music drummed against his pulse along with his steady footfalls and breaths. The morning was still young, and the air was brisk and invigorating.

In the quiet neighborhood that was still sleeping, Rin was the only one who was awake.

It felt good to jog through the near-identical roads, flanked by brick walls which overflowed with tangles of greenery. He kept his eyes forward as he ran, only occasionally glancing at his watch to check the time.

Something caught his attention, making him slow down and backtrack. He pulled out his earbuds and walked into the alleyway he just passed. Rin was sure he had seen something there just a few seconds ago.

A high-pitched meow reached his ears. From the weeds which sprouted out from the base of a lamppost, a small and fuzzy lump poked its head out.

Rin walked a little closer to the ball of fur and crouched down slowly.

The kitten—a only a soft splotch of orange and white fur with bright green eyes—meowed again and peeked at him. It started to approach him slowly.

Suddenly, before the first one could reach him, another grey kitten stumbled out from behind the tall weeds and ran to him.

The redhead couldn't help but laugh, but his laughter cut off when he noticed that there were two more kittens lounging nearby. From the looks of it, they were all from the same litter.

His attention was brought back when a tiny nose touched the tips of his fingers. He kept still, not wanting to scare the grey kitten away. It meowed at him pitifully when it realized that Rin didn't have food.

"Sorry, buddy," he said in a low voice. He tilted his palm to the floor and tried to pet the kitten's head. Surprisingly, it let him and even rubbed up against him.

The kitten was so small that his entire hand could cover it completely. As he felt down its head and back, Rin assessed its healthiness.

He was amazed to find that it seemed relatively well-fed and healthy. They didn't seem like they were someone's pets since they were wandering around without collars, but someone was obviously feeding them on a regular basis.

The other three kittens slowly approached him too, though with much more suspicion. Soon, he was surrounded by little fluff balls bearing sharp claws and teeth. He smiled slightly and took out his phone.

Once he got them into the screen, he snapped a picture. The kittens jumped at the loud noise his phone made but soon edged back to him cautiously, wanting to be pet more.

With one hand, he played with the cats, and with the other, he punched out a short message with his picture.

_Found these guys during my jog._

It sent without an issue.

Since he wasn't expecting an answer any time soon, he put his phone away.

Rin played with the kittens for a few more minutes before he realized how late it had gotten. He was only halfway done with his jog too.

Slowly, he stood up and brushed off his hands.

The smallest of the litter, a white kitten, pounced at his feet and started attacking his shoelace viciously. He nudged it aside gently, making it mewl in offense.

"Maybe tomorrow," he said to the four cats, who watched him with wide, glossy eyes.

Rin walked out to the street he had entered from and glanced back. They were too preoccupied play-fighting with each other to notice that he was leaving.

He put his earbuds back in and started jogging again.

* * *

The next day Rin went back, he brought some kitten food with him. Although he knew that someone else probably took care of them as well, he figured it wouldn't hurt to try to convince the kittens to like him more. Aside from that, he told himself, there wasn't a guarantee that whoever the cats' benefactor was always available to feed them.

This time, the kittens seemed more comfortable with him and didn't hesitate as much to greet him, though the sound of him opening up the can of food probably encouraged them more.

He was playing with them when his phone suddenly vibrated and startled the kittens away. Rin dug out his phone flipped it open.

It was a picture text.

He opened it and was greeted with a white cat staring at him with green eyes and one paw lifted up.

**_This one waits for Makoto every morning._**

Rin snorted under his breath in amusement. It seemed like Haruka was trying to one-up him on the picture cuteness scale. He typed out a reply while one of the kittens gnawed on his finger.

_What? So you're waiting with it too?_

Quietly, he slipped his phone back into his pocket, wondering if this was going to turn into a large-scale picture texting war. That was how things usually ended up anyway. He poked the kitten that was teething on him back and stood up. As much as he wanted to stay, he didn't want to waste too much time hanging around. The kittens had finished eating a while ago too.

"Alright, see you punks tomorrow," he said.

This time, they meowed goodbye to him and followed him for a few steps before getting distracted by something else.

* * *

For the next few days, Rin started his jogs early so that he could have time to play with the rapidly growing kittens. They got more and more used to him as the time went on, and the food he gave them every day helped foster their relationship as well.

"Alright, alright, you hungry monsters," he sighed dramatically as he went over to the four kittens. Rin took out a can of wet food from his jacket pocket and crouched into the meowing cluster that had formed near his feet. "Still alive?"

He reached out and started to scratch their backs gently.

The redhead smiled softly as they crowded around the can he put down and started to lick up the food enthusiastically.

The sound of gravel being stepped on made him turn around.

A lanky, silver-haired boy stood at the entrance of the alleyway, his blue eyes locked onto Rin's crouching form. He had a bowl-cut hairstyle which technically should have looked ridiculous but somehow looked alright on him. A bunch of bright bandages—five years too young and childish for someone his age—were stuck on his arms and fingers. He looked mildly surprised, but a smile quickly replaced his shock.

"Good morning!" he greeted brightly, bowing slightly at him.

Rin stood up quietly and turned so that he would be facing the boy. "… Good morning."

"I'm Nitori Aiichirou!" the boy introduced himself cheerily.

The redhead wasn't sure what to think about this newcomer, since it was barely breaching seven and he was already this enthusiastic. Not many people he knew would be this happy so early in the morning, and the ones he did know were a little unscrewed in the head.

The silence between them was stretching a little too long, however, and it would have been awkward not to introduce himself.

"Matsuoka Rin," he replied curtly.

"Nice to meet you, Matsuoka-san. Are you the one who has been feeding the kittens?" Aiichirou took a step into the alleyway and shifted the bag he had slung over his back so that it was resting on his chest instead. He unzipped it and pulled out a can of cat food.

Rin nodded briefly and moved aside so that they could both fit in the narrow street.

"I was wondering why these guys didn't seem as hungry as they usually were!"

The kittens trotted up to Aiichirou and meowed happily. Rin heard him murmuring softly to them as he crouched down. He held up the can of food. "I'd give this to them too, but that'd be overfeeding them, huh?"

He shrugged noncommittally.

The shorter boy laughed slightly, apparently not put off by Rin's succinctness.

"Have you been taking care of these guys for long?" he finally asked.

Aiichirou turned around and nodded. "Yeah. I've been keeping an eye out on them for a while. And the other strays around the area, basically…."

"Are you some sort of volunteer around here or something?"

The silver-haired boy laughed again. "No, nothing like that!" He stood up and patted his hands off. "I just want to make sure everyone's okay here." He took out a small notebook from his pocket and flipped through the pages briefly. While reading it, he hummed under his breath. "Another two weeks, huh…."

Although Rin was curious about what Aiichirou was doing, he didn't ask. Regardless of his silence, the silver-haired boy seemed to notice him staring.

"I always wait until the kittens are old enough to take into the local clinic to get them fixed," he explained, "and these guys are about six weeks old. I'm going to wait for a little while before taking them in though."

Rin pushed his hands into his pockets. "I didn't know that they offered free services for strays."

Aiichirou smiled. "They don't, so I pay for it. I've gone there enough times to get a discount at the clinic though."

The redhead quirked an eyebrow.

Before he could say anything, the silver-haired boy looked at his watch and made a small noise. "Speaking of which, I'm going to be late for work! I should get going. I guess I'll see you around?"

Rin didn't feel like making this a regular thing, but Aiichirou seemed to be more than happy to try and befriend him. He only grunted.

"Bye for now then! Oh, by the way, I work at the bakery that's down the road from here. It's much closer to downtown, but if you have time…." He didn't finish his sentence but smiled at him. Aiichirou bowed again and jogged out of the alleyway without saying more.

The redhead stood there for a few seconds, not sure what to make of the sudden meeting he just had.

A chorus of tiny mewling dragged his attention away.

* * *

_Met some really strange kid this morning when I went to feed the cats._

**_That's nice._**

* * *

"Ah, Matsuoka-san! Good morning!"

The next day Rin arrived at the alleyway, Aiichirou was already there. He stood up and bowed at him in greeting.

"… Good morning," he replied, the same way he had the day before.

"I've already fed them already today, so you don't have to worry."

Rin nodded briefly.

"Will you be here for long? I have an earlier shift today so I have to leave soon, but…." His eyes drifted down to the kittens.

In all honesty, Rin was thinking of leaving as quickly as possible, as to avoid the awkwardness that was standing in the same area as Aiichirou, but his legs weren't moving. He breathed out through his nose. "I guess."

"Okay!"

* * *

For the next few days, Rin and Aiichirou met up in the same alleyway in the mornings without making actual plans to do so.

Despite his initial wariness and uncomfortableness around the shorter boy, Rin eventually got used to his presence. Usually, Aiichirou was the one who talked, but Rin responded once in a while as well.

Some way or another, Rin found out way more about the silver-haired boy than he had initially planned to.

"So you entered S University this year?"

"Yeah."

Aiichirou hummed and nodded. "That's pretty cool. I don't know if I want to go there when I graduate though. I mean, I've been thinking about it and everything, but I still don't know where I want to go after high school."

"Aren't entrance exams soon?"

"Yeah…" the silver-haired boy sighed. "Unfortunately. Anyway, that's pretty amazing though, isn't it! That you go to S Uni? They're really well-known for their swimming club, huh? Do you like swimming, Matsuoka-san?"

Rin shrugged. "Something like that."

"Me too! I like swimming a lot." He tilted his head. "I mean, I'm not great at it or anything, but…"

"Well," Rin said, "just keep at it."

He laughed. "Yeah!"

* * *

"They're really cute, but sometimes, they just get a little too feisty!"

Aiichirou rubbed down the edge of one of his bandages that was peeling off. It had a pattern of cartoon sharks on it. The other ones he had stuck on were similarly decorated with aquatic sea creatures. Some of the injuries on his skin were too long to be covered completely by the bandages, so they peeked out thinly.

Rin could see the distinct scratches caused by a kitten which had grabbed ahold of Aiichirou and kicked him with its hind legs on his arm. Similar injuries, the result of needle-sharp claws and prickly teeth littered the silver-haired boy's skin.

"It means I have to wear gloves at work, but it's not too bad, I guess." He stretched his arms above his head.

Rin hummed neutrally.

* * *

_This kid's weird._

**_The pot calling the kettle black?_**

_Shut the hell up, Haru._

* * *

"You don't name them?"

"No," Aiichirou replied, sounding a little wistful. "I always want to, but I know better than to do that. I can't take them all in no matter how much I want, so it's better that I don't name them." He chuckled when the grey kitten headbutted him and meowed.

"A lot of people think they're helping the strays by feeding them because they look so sad, but in the end, they're just continuing the problem," he said softly. The kitten had clambered onto his lap and started batting at his hands. "The more successful they are at surviving, the more they'll reproduce. And then the problem just keeps going, right?

"But if people really want to do something about the whole thing, they'd help get them fixed instead. Well, people _do_ care, but they don't care enough to actually do anything, so…."

He quirked his mouth to one side and sighed.

Rin remained quiet. He supposed he was one of those people too.

"That's why I'm doing my best to watch out for the stray cats around this area. Of course, I can't keep track of all of them, which is how little guys like these keep popping up, but it's better than just feeding them."

For a long time, the redhead didn't say anything. After a moment of deliberation, he said, "You care too much."

"Yeah, probably," Aiichirou replied lightheartedly. "A lot of people tell me that!"

Rin wanted to tell him what usually happened with people who cared too much about others and too little about themselves, but he kept it to himself.

* * *

_How the hell do people like him even exist?_

**_I don't know. Maybe they suck the kindness out of people. Maybe that's how people like you exist._**

_Fuck you, man._

* * *

"It's really hard to work around my swimming club's schedule, so I feel bad for asking for really specific shifts all the time…. On top of that, I can only really work during breaks. The owners of the bakery are really nice though, which makes me feel kind of worse."

Aiichirou was explaining his working situation to Rin, who had never actually asked. The redhead had assumed that Aiichirou paid for cat food and clinic visits with the money he got from his parents, but he apparently got a part-time job just for the sake of taking care of the neighborhood cats.

Rin would be lying if he said that he wasn't impressed. The kid was a hardworking and unselfish one, at the very least. A little too talkative as well, but Rin didn't care too much.

"You should stop by the bakery sometime," the silver-haired boy said while he stood up from where they had been leaning on the wall. "The bread we sell is pretty good, and the coffee's not half-bad either." This time, his invitation was a little stronger than before.

He made a half-coherent noise in reply, and Aiichirou smiled.

* * *

"Welco—Ah! Matsuoka-san!"

The door slid shut behind him automatically, and Rin was enveloped in the warmth of the bakery. It was an odd hour in the early morning, and the area the bakery was in wasn't particularly active anyway, so they were the only ones in the store.

"You finally came!"

Rin nodded. He picked up a plastic tray and a pair of tongs from the entrance. He walked in farther, eyeing all the baked goods that were displayed on the open shelves. He ended up getting a thick slice of raisin bread and something cream-filled.

After ordering a coffee and paying for it, he sat down at one of the tables nearest to the counter.

"Sorry I couldn't get there this morning! I was in charge of opening up shop today." He carefully put down Rin's cup of coffee on the table.

"S'okay," Rin muttered. He added sugar into his cup and stirred it in.

It was strong, fragrant, and maybe a little too sweet.

* * *

"I've already mixed in the sedatives into the food, so we'll just have to watch them carefully before putting them into the carrier. It's probably better if we keep it out of sight for now though."

Aiichirou was mashing some wet cat food around the can with a spoon. Rin was in charge of holding the carrier, which had a clean towel covering the bottom of it.

Two weeks had passed since their first meeting, and it was time to take the kittens to the clinic. Aiichirou was clearly more familiar with the whole procedure, but he was glad to have someone to help him this time around.

The kittens were none the wiser to what was in store for them when the two boys walked into the alleyway and even greeted them enthusiastically. They were no longer confining themselves to the same place and frequently wandered but generally congregated there for breakfast.

All four of them were getting big fast.

AIichirou crouched down and put the food on the floor, and they waited for the food to be finished.

Within a few minutes, they kittens started to get drowsy and tottered around clumsily. Two of them gave up and went to sleep while the other two meowed and rolled around until they, too, fell asleep.

"Okay, they should be ready now."

Rin retrieved the small carrier. The silver-haired boy scooped up one of the kittens and gently placed it into the box. The remaining three were not difficult to collect either.

Getting the carrier to the clinic wasn't bad, since it was within walking distance. The nurses were familiar with Aiichirou, and he was fairly at home with all the paperwork, so they were able to finish up quickly. After they had paid, it was only a matter of waiting for the next day to pick them up again.

"Thanks for coming with me today, Matsuoka-san!"

"Yeah. No problem."

"I hope they'll be alright tomorrow. They're usually pretty cranky the day after." Aiichirou laughed a little. "But I guess that's normal, considering what they would've gone through."

Rin handed him back the carrier.

"See you again tomorrow!"

"Later."

* * *

_Finally dropped off the monsters at the clinic._

**_Good work, Papa Rin._**

_Haru, I swear to god…._

* * *

The next day when Rin and Aiichirou went into the clinic, they were brought into the back where four very grumpy kittens were waiting for them.

Thankfully, there had been no complications, so they were ready to be released.

The two of them brought the kittens back to their usual home and dropped them off. They stayed behind for a while to watch them and make sure everything was alright.

They were understandably skittish and hid from Rin and Aiichirou but otherwise seemed healthy. The two boys left them shortly, so the kittens could recover in peace.

After that, they went to a café to talk and chat.

* * *

In the following days and weeks, Rin and Aiichirou frequently hung out.

They eventually exchanged numbers and kept in touch after break ended and they needed to go back to class.

Rin found that Aiichirou was a more pleasant texting partner than Haruka was.

* * *

"Hahaha! No way! You didn't actually do that, did you?" Aiichirou exclaimed. He laughed so hard that he had to wipe his eyes.

A loud snapping sound came from Rin's phone, which sobered him quickly.

Between his dying chuckles, the silver-haired boy asked, "What was that for?"

Rin put his phone away. "Nothing."

Aiichirou hummed suspiciously but smiled all the same.

* * *

Two days later, Rin was back in the café. When Aiichirou put his cup of coffee down on the table, Rin looked up. The redhead was surprised when a pair of soft lips pressed against his firmly.

* * *

When Haruka went to check his phone that night, he discovered that Rin had sent him another text. It had a picture attachment, so he opened it up.

Instead of the usual cat picture, he saw a photograph of a boy with short, grey hair and a mole by his right eye. He was in the middle of laughing very hard and was wiping his eyes helplessly.

He scrolled down the text and snorted in amusement.

_This one followed me home._


End file.
